All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in
writing to the Head of the Music Library.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Research materials pertaining to Marion Kappes' unpublished
Index of, ARCHIVES KAPPES 1, The Music Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Biography

Marion Kappes, probably d. in Evanston, Illinois about 1943.

Remarks

This collection of research materials represents the final stages of preparation before
the
Index of Folk Tunes went to the publisher, H. W. Wilson Company, New
York. Evidently 114 published collections of folk tunes were to have been included in the
publication (see the
Correspondence for May 28, 1937 and the bound yellow
chart mentioned in item 8 of this inventory). The
Index was begun well
before the year 1930 and continued actively until June, 1941. The project terminated due
to the death of the compiler. It is evident that Miss Kappes was a passionate dilettante,
who doggedly pursued a dream of publishing an index of world folk tunes. Her
Indexwas intended to go beyond the catalogs of Minnie Sears, and actually contain the
tunes.

It can be determined from the
Correspondence (item 3 in this inventory)
that Miss Kappes grappled with two fundamental problems: (a) For whom was the
Index intended--the grade school teacher, the public librarian or for
members of the American Folklore Society, like Prof George Herzog of Yale?, and (b) How
were textual and melodic variants to be treated?

Marion Kappes used scrap paper for the "sheets" (her primary index cards). Much of the
information on the verso sides of this paper pertained to her personally, and to her
family. A cursory examination of these thousands of pieces of paper reveals the
following:

In the summer of 1950, Anne L. Kappes requested the H. W. Wilson Company to reconsider
publishing the
Index, but this was turned down (see
Correspondencefile).

The reason why this collection was deposited with the Music Library at U. C. Berkeley by
the Kappes family, and not with some mid-western institution, is unknown.

An explanation of the indexing system (from a hand-copied note by Marion Kappes, no
date):

"For convenience these papers are called '
Sheets,' 'Tickets,' and
'Music Cards'.

Sheets have been classified by countries and each tune given a
number and filed systematically.

The same tune appears in many collections
often under different titles.
Sheets have been made for
all such and clipped together under one number. About 5490 tunes have been thus
numbered.

Perhaps 1500 to 2000 additional
sheetsare made but not filed. A
ticket has been made for
each title and each first line of the song. These
tickets[index cards] are filed in alphabetical order. An estimated 15,000 to 16,000 have
been thus made and filed.

Sheets and
tickets are all written by hand.

About 1500
music cards have been made. These
music cards are supposed to be ready for the publisher."